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Saturday, April 15, 2017

The weather forecast for the Easter holiday started out rather depressing, but improved almost by the hour when Easter got closer. In addition to being with my family I also had plans to be out a little to enjoy the spring. It turned out, however, that the spring advances very slowly currently, but that is no reason not to go out.

The plans were fixed and I was to go out on a little kayaking overnighter starting on Thursday afternoon, with a specific purpose to scout possible tent sites for a paddling club weekend trip that I'm leading at the end of May. I got Jukka to join me.

We started paddling from Kasnäs at half past six in the evening. The weather was interesting, with sun, occasional light snow and hail showers and a temperature barely above freezing.

There was some amount of water fowl, but not really in the numbers I had anticipated. Common eiders, oystercatchers, greylag geese, as well as all the gulls were there, but I had expected more.

We had time for two hours of paddling before the sunset. One place was checked out and found acceptable if nothing else would be found. Just as we entered the area were I had checked out a few possibilities on the map, I decided to check out a small island I had not previously considered. This particular area had quite a number of summer cabins, but this island was empty and looked quite promising, so we decided to stay there, after only 10 km of paddling.

Sunset at 20:40.

We had a little food, but I had failed to take everything needed for pancakes. An unfortunate consequence of being too much in a hurry when packing.

The evening was nice, though. We went to sleep between ten and half past ten in the evening, with the intention of getting up at half past six in the morning.

The night was a little chilly with a few degrees below freezing. My ultralight summer sleeping bag was just enough with a down jacket on top of it. The morning was nice.

Frost on the tent.

The sunrise was at 6:20.

A little ice on the small puddles.

This pine had chosen an exceptionally poor place to grow on.

Our kayaks and tents.

Breakfast.

On the move again a little before nine in the morning.

After a while the landscape opened up and we entered the outer archipelago.

We found several nice camping spots for nice weather. The slick rock islands might not be the best when the weather is harsh, but otherwise they are so nice. We took a short break on one of them.

Nice and sunny weather, but it wasn't warm, barely above freezing.

Lots of survival food here. This particular lichen species is edible and can provide energy in an emergency situation. The taste isn't great, though.

A really nice place.

We had some fun in the labyrinth like area.

After a while it was time to turn back to the inner archipelago.

We were back at Kasnäs at half past two in the afternoon, after 25 km of nice paddling. A nice trip and we found several nice islands to camp on for the May trip.